1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microstructures, and more particularly to devices for providing structural support and electrical signals to an inner micro-support structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thermal isolation of micro-scale electrical and optoelectronic components can be important for components that are required to be at a temperature that is de-coupled from their external environment.
Chip-scale atomic devices such as chip-scale atomic clocks (“CSAC”), for example, may require thermal isolation of particular components from their environment and from the package enclosure in which they sit to reduce thermal losses and hence heating power required to thermally bias the components. Unfortunately, thermal isolation is not the only packaging design consideration. Power and signaling must also be provided to the CSAC components (typically including portions of the “physics package” such as the vapor cell and/or vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) optical source) to achieve the necessary thermal bias and temperature control, or in the case of the VCSEL to generate the required optical output for generation and interrogation of the atomic states in the vapor cell. These power and signaling requirements necessitate an electrical and physical connection between the physics package components, the enclosure in which they sit and external devices, thus complicating thermal isolation efforts for the physics package. Kapton flex cables may be used for such connections, but their use results in disadvantageous thermal coupling between the physics package components and the enclosure in which they sit. More generally, thermal isolation between adjacent substrates used in other types of systems and other types of physics packages is a problem that is complicated by conflicting requirements of power and signaling communication between them.
A need continues to exist to provide power and signaling to micro-scale components while minimizing thermal communication with their environment.